[DeepL Translation - needs review] Volume 1 Introduction: A long time ago in China. Riho is on a journey in search of her father's revenge,
Riho is on a quest to avenge her father's death, when she meets Tarren, a hermit from the Jyusenkai, a world in another dimension from earth, who is chasing a rebel army that has defied the emperor.
For some reason, Riho is attracted to Takujin, who says he doesn't trust anyone, and decides to travel with him...?
If you like friends, justice, bonds, fate...
A martial arts adventure
There are two worlds in 仁獣芳烈伝: one is the human world, and the other is called the 樹仙界 (じゅせんかい); inhabitants of the 樹仙界 are 仙界人 and wield mysterious powers, and a few years prior to the start of volume 1 were in the throes of a major civil war. The rebelling faction believed in a "might makes right" policy of living, while the defenders, headed by the realm's emperor, supported a more moderate, peaceful way of rule. After a long a blood conflict, the rebels, upon realizing they were losing, fled and scattered to the four winds on Earth, the Emperor's troops hot on their heels and determined to round them up.
This is where our story begins. A young human man named LiFang is passing through a village one evening when he finds another man passed out on the street. He brings him to an inn to recover, and finds out that this man, TuoRen, is one of those 仙界人, here to hunt down the rebel army. LiFang is also looking for a 仙界人, a man who's face he doesn't remember but who he saw murder his father when he was young, and the two decide to team up.
You'll notice the name anglicization above; this is because I do not have a Chinese keyboard installed on my desktop, and cannot be bothered to install one/hunt down the original terms and copy/paste them. As the title might hint, this series is set in that classic pseudo-ancient China, and the author goes above and beyond by giving every character a Chinese name, man or animal. (Which, rather hilariously, the author later notes they regret in an author's note, as they were concerned about the potential difficulty for readers for remembering the names.) This includes a Chinese pronunciation, which is, as far as I can tell, only somewhat approximated by the given furigana. Furigana which is, by the way, fully present on all kanji in the series, so don't worry too much about the pronunciations.
I really enjoyed this first volume; it sets up a very action-packed and emotional adventure. I thought the chemistry between the two leads worked out really well, and the animal companions that get added a nice touch. There are some fantasy concepts of "qi" and sharing qi and such, but I overall didn't find it too difficult to follow.